British Racism and White Privilege: We Are No Better





Hi,
I wanted to address the issues that are heavily dominating public agenda currently. I've taken my time in deciding which way to discuss this issue as a white woman due to its sensitivity yet I believe it is important that everyone from a privileged position of any kind uses their voice in some way to support and protect our black communities, their lives and rights. I obviously do not cover all of the issues there are in Britain in terms of racism as the list is endless but I just wanted to provide a quick overview and raise awareness of why we all need to actively educate ourselves more.

 Britain is inherently racist. Stormzy addressed this issue at the end of last year when he discussed the fact that the UK is '100% racist' even though a lot of it is hidden. In the last few days since George Floyd's murder I have seen a lot of people on social media (mainly Twitter) state their horror at the American police system and the fact that they are almost thankful that the UK 'isn't as bad as America'. It's uneducated and passive to adopt this mentality. We can no longer use the excuse that we are physically helpless due to being from the UK; racism is present within numerous levels of UK society and we are no better than the US.

 I personally, although often making an active effort to keep up with the Black Lives Movement through their online presence and reading a few books on the matter, have failed to fully educate myself on the racism in my country to the level I would deem appropriate. Although a lot of this was on me, a lot of it is also down to the lack of racial history taught on the UK state education specification. I don't remember learning almost anything in my 14 years of public education surrounding Britain's racist history that has shaped our society today. This in itself is nationalist and racist. UK children are manipulated to believe that Britain largely followed America's lead in many historical racial injustices and horrors. Also, I realised recently that I knew very few British racial civil rights activists due to how for my entire education I had only been exposed to US information and history, the ones I knew were only brought to my attention through wider reading from my politics degree.

 For future research and education on the UK civil rights movement, here are some starting points that I have seen mentioned on an Instagram post by @das.penman : 
  1.  The Bristol Bus Boycott
  2. Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD)
  3. Notting Hill Riots of 1958
  4. The Mangrove Nine
    5.
  5. The MacPherson Report and the Establishment of the Police Complaints Authority in the 1980s
I would believe that most people in the UK are generally aware of the massive role that the UK played within the slave trade through transportation etc, yet even after abolition Britain maintained abhorrent racism. When slavery was abolished in 1833, the Treasury paid what would equate now to £16 billion to slave owners to repay them for their 'loss of property'. This debt was still being paid back to slave owner descendants until 2015. Continuing around 1919 in Liverpool alone, 120 black workers were sacked due to the fact that white workers said they did not wish to work alongside people of colour. 

 In the 1950s there was notable racism in the housing industry. In the 50s there was a rise in Caribbean immigration to Britain, many of these people ended up homeless due to being ineligible to apply for council housing due to applicants having to be a UK resident/ citizen for numerous years and due to the systematic racism of private landlords. In Birmingham in 1956, out of 1000 white landlords surveyed, only FIFTEEN said they would rent a room to a black tenant. Further landlords would often charge black tenants an increasing amount for rent compared to white tenants and this would result in black tenants having to live in overcrowded houses in poorer areas and therefore be subject to poorer life opportunities with the effects of such still being felt today. Some landlords still uphold racist values today. In 2017, one of the UK's biggest landlords, Furgus Wilson banned (what he refered to as) 'coloured people' from renting properties due to the 'smell of curry sticking to the carpet'. Less explictly, in 2018 Jessica Kearns put a 'Black Lives Matter' sign in her apartment window. Two days later she got a note asking her to take it down and then, when she refused, she was told she was evicted. There was an example circulating Twitter in recent days of a landlord stating although they 'agree with the sentiment' they must take down their sign.

At this point, I think it is important to think about the residents of Grenfell tower and the injustices that they have faced in the last few years. It is impossible to ignore the knowledge that the majority of residents of Grenfell were ethnic minorities and POC. Some victims of Grenfell, a government failure, are still in temporary housing and it is essential that white people acknowledge that if it was white people facing the horrors that have been faced, it is likely like it would have been a very different story.

In the 1970s, there was a huge issue with systematic racism within football with fans starting racist chants and nicknames for black players. This is again still very much around today despite campaigns such as 'Give Racism the Red Card', fans still use racist language and chants during football matches. Further, there is a massive amount of racism in the media coverage of football also. Raheem Sterling is the obvious example and he has spoken out about his expriences with racism within the British press for a few years now. In 2015 when asking for a pay rise after winning the 'Golden Boy' award, Sterling recieved huge backlash from the press with The Telegraph calling him 'greedy'. Further, the expenses of Sterling have faced massive criticism in The S** (surprise surprise) with the paper labelling him 'obscene' for buying his mother a bathroom sink and also publishing a breakdown of the prices of his vehicles. Continuing, ex-footballer turned Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness in the latter end of 2019 was called out for his borderline racist remarks surrounding Everton's Moise Kean. Souness repatedly questioned why Juventus sold Kean at the promising age of 19 and suggested they may have due to the attitude of Kean off the pitch. We have to call these throw away comments and articles out. Would a white player recieve the same stereotyping or coverage in the UK? No. They wouldn't.

Continuing the discussion of racism in the UK mainstream media, there is obviously too many examples to mention in this blog post. But we should think about the notable contrasting coverage that Meghan Markle experienced compared to Kate Middleton. It only takes a quick Google search to see how difference their attitudes and behaviours were understood mainly by the British tabloids. Secondly, Liam Neeson was interviewed by The Independent in 2019 and he stated that he had once walked the streets armed, ready to take out his anger on the first black man that provoked him, after someone close to him was sexually assualted by a black man. I had almost forgotten about this until recently due to the UK media's silence on this after the immediate press storm. Why is this? Why are black 'elite figures' so often condemned for their actions and comments yet a white male is able to brush these comments on the rug and continue his successful career? It's racism. Thirdly, the UK media are desperately trying to find some sort of breakthrough currently with the Madeleine McCann case... 13 years on. I've receieved countless emails from news publications I am a member of discussing the new information for the case but barely any discussing actual information surrounding the protests taking place around the world currently. This is undeniably heavily due to the fact that the press don't want to give prescence to black voices at this time. 

To continue, police brutality and racism in the UK and US is nothing new. In 1919 there were race inflicted riots started by white labourers and working class workers due to the disarmament after World War I resulting in reduced jobs. These riots took place in a lot of British docks including, South Shields, Glasgow, East End London, Liverpool and Cardiff. Many black people were brutally attacked, yet it was found that still more black people were arrested compared to white people; despite white men starting and leading the violent riots. Black people are still repeatedly targeted by police in ways that white people could never imagine. In 2019 it was found that black people were 40% more likely to be stopped and searched by police.

 In the summer of 2011 there were week long riots following the murder of Mark Duggan by a police officer. However there have also been numerous other cases such as Jimmy Mubenga who died in 2010 on a Heathrow runway whilst being restrained by three immigration officers. Rashan Charles died in 2017 in Hackney after being restrained by a police officer and choking. Edson Da Costa could also be mentioned as well as Sarah Reed, Sheku Bayoh and Sean Rigg yet the last time a UK police officer was successfully prosecuted regarding the death of someone in custody was 1969. It is easy to think that police brutality and systematic racism within the police force is not present in the UK in the same way as the US due to the fact that our police are not often seen carrying life threatening weapons and guns, yet this is naive and simply untrue. Many officers do not protect black people in the same way as white people and it is therefore SO important that we use the protection that we have to protect those less fortunate and to question why this basic protection is in place for some and not others.

 I hope that I have done an adequate job at rounding up some of the key facts surrounding racism in the UK and maybe educated even one person on the issues of placing blame entirely on the US. White people can work to fight these issues from a grassroots level by accepting and using privilege for change, educating ourselves on areas that have been left blank (it is not down to POC to educate us), calling out racism in our own social circles (physically and online), questioning why there is a lack of POC in a certain profession, talking abour racism to family members and not accepting that it is ok for elderly people to have racist views beacuse of their age, signing petitions, donating if we can, writing to your local MP, attending protests set up by black people and elevating black voices.

 Here are some ways you can start helping right now: 



  • Here is a google document (not created by me) that is constantly being updated with ways to support the movement. The page contains a template for writing to your MP as well as information on how to find their email address. The page also contains numerous pieces of information about racism in the UK and UK groups who stop racism. I have linked the document here. 


  • Book recs on the issue:

  • Me and White Supremacy - Layla F Saad
  • @versobooks - a left wing publisher that has numerous books about race and white privilege 
  • Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Reni Eddo Lodge
  • Homecoming : Voices of the Windrush Generation - Colin Grant
  • White Fragility - Robin DiAngelo
  • BRIT (ish) - Afua Hirsch
  • Natives : Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire - Akala
  • Audre Lorde (anything by her)
  • Girl, Woman, Other - Bernardine Evaristo
See you in the next post, stay safe,

Rach 







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